Beauty and Her Beast (Daryl Dixon Fanfic)

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It felt like we were sitting there for hours, listening to Maggie's soft crying. Glenn had his body turned to Maggie. "Maggie, did he-"

"No. No. He barely touched me. I don't know why he only did...with Charlotte. All this time, running from walkers-you forget what people do, have always done. Look at what they did to you."

"Doesn't matter." Glenn whispered. "As long as he didn't-"

Maggie shook her head. "No. I promise."

Glenn brought her in for a hug. "He saw the scars." I said.

They both looked at me. "What?"

"He saw my scars, he knew it would take a lot to break me. That's why he did it. But I didn't break, I knew I had to endure the pain to protect our people, but it was all for nothing. If it was Daryl...I would have done the same."

The room was silent again, then Glenn stood up, walking over to the walker he killed. He grabbed its forearm and put a hand on its chest, pulling until it ripped off. Maggie and I stood up and walked over as he stomped on the arm and tore the flesh. He started breaking off chunks of bone, handing two to Maggie and I, then breaking off one for himself.

~*~

We poised ourselves at the door, waiting for someone to come get us. When the door opened, we jumped out, surprising them. I helped Maggie with one man while Glenn took on Merle. I kicked him in the chest and Maggie jammed her bone shank into his throat. When she pulled it out and he fell, his finger tightened over the trigger of his gun, sending bullets flying.

Glenn continued to struggle with Merle, who flipped Glenn over and pressed his blade to his throat.

Maggie grabbed the dead man's gun, aiming it at Merle. "Let him go!"

Merle smirked, letting him go. "Okay."

We turned around, seeing two more men with their guns trained on us. Merle knocked the gun out of Maggie's hands. "Give me the gun! He turned back to Glenn. "Get up!"

When Glenn got up, we were all pushed to our knees. "Glad we could catch up." Someone put sacks over our heads and we were forced to our feet, being pushed with guns on our backs. I gasped when I heard a loud bang and smoke filled the air. We recovered quickly and pulled the bags off our heads, being rushed out by Rick, Daryl, Oscar and a woman I didn't recognize.

When we got outside we kept our heads low, ducking into the the first building we came across. Glenn fell as we got inside and Maggie made sure he was okay. "Ain't no way out back here." Daryl said.

"Rick, how did you find us?" Maggie asked.

"How bad are you hurt?" Rick asked.

Glenn winced. "I'll be alright."

I threw myself at Daryl, hugging him as close as possible. "I thought we were gonna die."

"It's okay, are you hurt?"

I shook my head, lying. "No, they didn't hurt me." I tugged at the shirt, hoping he didn't see the bruise.

"Good. Here, take this." Daryl handed me a gun.

"Where's that woman?" Maggie asked.

Rick looked frustrated. "She was right behind us." Rick pulled back a curtain to look out the window.

"Maybe she was spotted. Want me to go look for her?" Daryl asked.

"No. We gotta get them out of here. She's on her own."

"Daryl, this was Merle." Glenn said. "It was. He did this."

"You saw him?"

"Face to face. Threw a walker at me. He was gonna execute us."

Daryl looked confused. "S-so my brother's this Governor?"

"No, it's somebody else. Your brother's his lieutenant or something."

"Does he know I'm still with you?"

"He does now. Rick, I'm sorry. We told him where the prison was. We couldn't hold out."

Rick pat Glenn's knee. "Don't. No need to apologize."

"They're gonna be looking for us." I said. "We need to move, right now."

Rick nodded in agreement. "We have to get back. Can you walk? We got a car a few miles out." He asked Glenn.

"I'm good."

They helped Glenn to his feet and Maggie kept her arm around Glenn's. "If Merle's here, I need to see him." Daryl rushed.

"Not now, we're in hostile territory."

It wasn't hard to tell Daryl's was upset. "He's my brother. I ain't-"

"Look at what he did! Look, we gotta-we gotta get out of here now."

"Maybe I can talk to him. Maybe I can work something out." Daryl was desperate, and when he's desperate, he does something stupid.

"No, no, no. You're not thinking straight. Look, no matter what they say, they're hurt. Glenn can barely walk. How're we gonna make it out if we get overrun by walkers and this governor catches up to us? I need you. Are you with me?"

Daryl realized Rick wouldn't budge. "Yeah."

Then we were back in motion. Daryl grabbed one of the smoke bombs, pulling the pin. "On three. Stay tight. One, two, three." Rick opened the door and Daryl threw the bomb into the street. He threw another one and we waited a minute before going.

Someone shined a flashlight at us, alerting others of our presence. We started firing at each other but we kept moving toward the wall, the smoke and darkness making us less visible. When we cleared the wall of people, more started firing at us from behind. "Get cover!" Rick yelled.

We ducked behind a building and Daryl and Oscar kept firing. "How many?!"

"I didn't see!"

Daryl was reloading his gun. "Don't matter. There's gonna be more of them. We need to move.

"Any grenades left?" Rick asked.

"Uh-huh."

"Get 'em ready. We gotta gun it to the wall!"

"You guys go ahead, I'm gonna lay some cover fire."

"No, we gotta stay together!" Maggie yelled.

Daryl shook his head. "Too hairy. I'll be right behind you. Ready?" Before I could object as well, Daryl threw a grenade and started firing. We all ran for the wall.

We got on the hood of a bus and I climbed to the top to help Glenn up. Oscar was pushing him up when a bullet pierced his chest and he cried out, falling to the ground. "Oscar, no!" I yelled.

Maggie crouched over his body, shaking him. "Rick! Rick!" She yelled, trying to get him to get over here. She stood and turned her head, shooting Oscar in the head.

Rick finally came over, helping Maggie up. I pulled her up and then I pulled Rick up. We jumped over the wall, rushing to duck behind a car. People were on the wall, using spotlights to look for us.

"Come on, Daryl." Rick whispered.
We heard rustling behind us, but it wasn't Daryl, it was the woman from before. She was bleeding from her head and the bridge of her nose. Rick aimed his gun at her. "Where the hell were you?"

She pulled herself to her feet, looking exhausted. "Put your hands up. Turn around. Turn around." She turned and Rick took her sword.

"Get what you came for?" He asked.

"Where are the rest of your people?" She retorted.

"They got Oscar."

"Daryl is missing. You didn't see him?" She shook her head.

"If anything happens to him-"

"I brought you here to save them." She was getting sick of Rick's distrust. So was I.

I rolled my eyes. "Thanks for the help." Rick nodded.

"You'll need help to get them back to the prison or to go back in there for Daryl. Either way, you need me." She was right, we didn't know the layout of Woodbury, she did apparently, she would know where they took him.